Posted on 04/08/2005 10:07:15 AM PDT by GMMAC
Canada's Watergate
Don Martin
National Post (front page!)
Friday, April 08, 2005
He glanced at reporters salivating to escape his news quarantine, looked at the bank of television cameras carrying his inquiry live for the first time in a week and issued the order: Unleash hell.
When Justice John Gomery lifted his own publication ban Thursday on jaw-dropping testimony by Groupaction president Jean Brault, a nightmare of allegations against the federal Liberal party gushed forth into the public domain in a firestorm of ferocity.
National television networks went live, government antagonists went wild in Question Period, urgent alerts pinged across the newswires.
The dam protecting federal Liberals from the disclosure of their party's ugly past had been breached -- and Canada's Watergate spilled out.
In six days of unflappable testimony, Brault recounted living a life of dirty tricks with rotten scoundrels pocketing, procuring and defrauding taxpayers by using a $100-million advertising pot set aside to promote national unity in post-referendum Quebec as their own private slush fund.
The Liberals swapped cash for contracts, kicked back money for nothing and traded payola for spots on Brault's payroll.
It's the darkest side of ugly Canadian politics, confirming every cynic's worst suspicions that grease and slime lubricate the wheels of government activity.
If Brault's allegations stick and voter revulsion spreads beyond Quebec, this Liberal government's fate can now be carved in six words on its sponsorship program tombstone: Extortion. Kickbacks. Forgeries. Blackmail. Fraud. Waste.
Brault painted a graphic picture of Liberal conduct in Quebec as that of a secret mutual backscratching society where public money was laundered through bogus business deals to fill up cash-strapped Liberal party coffers. It was bold, crass, transparent sleaze with organized crime overtones, complete with cartoon-caper nicknames like White Head for one top operative or Choo Choo Man for the head of Via Rail.
Cuddling with the Liberals in Quebec in the mid to late 1990s meant the right hire or the correct amount of cash in an envelope was the fast track to juicy government contracts. If that wasn't reward enough, there was the option of kickbacks through false invoices, inflated costs or simply taking the money for pretend projects.
The legitimate worry now being reflected even by federalist opposition parties is that a program custom-designed to promote the face of Canada in Quebec will give separatism an referendum-winning facelift. The irony is too ugly to contemplate.
OK, perhaps a journalistic Valium is in order here -- this is, after all, all single-witness testimony. And the witness is not exactly lily-white, with Brault now facing six conspiracy and fraud charges, with a June 6 court date.
Still, corroboration by others involved in the scandal is emerging and some of Brault's say-so on the stand has documentation to support his recollections.
So will the scandal stick? Haven't a clue. But after days watching the testimony on closed-circuit television, little things linger in the memory as defining images of the scandal.
Like, say, the $5,000 in an envelope Brault says he brought to pay off a Liberal fundraiser he was told to hire. (Brault left it on the table when he visited the washroom, only to find it gone when he returned.)
Or the Liberal insider ordered on to Groupaction's payroll for $7,000 a month, whose only work appeared to be writing a fawning biography of former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano.
Or the racing car we paid $30,000 for, to be decorated with two Maple Leaf bumper stickers.
It all adds up to a party brand tarred and feathered for the long run, which could end up turning its minority rule into a short-term proposition.
If Brault's testimony is not rendered fictional by future testimony at the inquiry, being Liberal means never having to worry about being elected in Quebec. They'd have better luck running in the dry Grit gulch of Alberta, where the provincial Liberal leader is thinking of changing his party's name to escape the poisoned brand name.
While the tentacles reach high into Jean Chretien's organizational chart, it must be stressed they stop short of touching Paul Martin. That might not matter. This is one heavy albatross Martin will haul into the next election -- and while I'd never underestimate the Ontario voters' ability to forgive the Liberals almost anything, this is going to be harder for Martin to overcome than his 2004 sponsorship mea culpa.
The Liberal spin of this as a scandal confined to a small band of unsupervised rascals who auctioned off contracts to the highest bidder and used the proceeds to line their own pockets is a tough sell. How, then, to explain the rogue party official who was able, after receiving a $50,000 cash bribe, to muscle the justice ministry into killing a planned advertising tender for the much maligned firearms registry, leaving the business in Brault's hands? That's deep penetration stuff, not just the small circle running the sponsorship program.
These and a host of other inquiry revelations have left the Prime Minister of Canada floundering in a political maelstrom, the leader of a party that could be dragged into an election at any time by Opposition forces while it remains vulnerable to an electoral wipeout in Quebec.
As for Jean Brault, he's no hero. The spectators who cheered him as he left the inquiry have confused him with an altruistic whistleblower. He's nothing of the sort -- merely a self-admitted scam artist taking down as many cohorts as possible before he's hauled into court. But as of today, he has unleashed enough hell on the government that the keys to 24 Sussex Drive are jangling in front of the Conservatives.
If only the Quebec Liberals' mentality prevails in the next government, someone in Stephen Harper's office will reward Jean Brault with a hefty advertising contract. No kickback required.
© National Post 2005
That message brought to you by Liberals and the left wing, which incidentally knows no borders. I hear just as much F America coming from the left coast, left media and other blue states in much larger numbers and louder voices than the squeek comming from Liberal patriots in Canada's leftist stronghold in Ontario. Canada's right don't Say F America because of the actions of our left, they rally with us to defeat them and expose them for what they are.
How much you want to bet that they won't even be thrown out of office, much less thrown in jail?
Here's a link that clearly shows the population distribution of Canada.
http://www.canadainfolink.ca/charttwo.htm
Were the U.S. a BIG Canada, your largest state would have a population of 100 million, and be itself dominated by a metropolis of 40 million, which had more people than all but four of thirteen states combined.
Your 2nd state would have 65 million people, most of whom spoke Spanish, and whose strongest political movement strives for independence.
Any guesses?
Probably a secret company headed by Liberal organizers...
I wonder if Power Corp. also gave to the Bloc and NDP?
I am guessing they are there because of their strength in the old PC Party (It says that it includes outstanding CA and PC donations)
Corporation Name(s): 55555 INC.
Registered Office Address: [Latest address on file]
Care of:
Street: 130 KING STREET WEST SUITE 1600
Location: TORONTO
Province: Ontario
Postal Code: M5X1J5
Country: Canada
Incorporation:1998/11/09
Directors
Current: 3 Last Update Date: 2000/03/31
Min: 1 Last Amendment:
Max: 3
Director(s) name(s):
JOHN WEBSTER
MICHAEL CONNOLLY
DAVID HERLE
Ring any bells?
Full name: 55555 Inc.
City: Ottawa
Province: Ontario
Postal code: K1P 1K1
$2,974,341.20 55555 Inc. (Paul Martin Leadership Fund)
Canada is a double bagger..
He must be desperate..
That message has come from the LIBERALS tho, NOT us CONSERVATIVES. We support your country, your troops, the war, your President. I personally belong to the Presidential Prayer Team and have adopted 3 Marines who I pray for each and EVERY day. You can't lump us all together. Quebec and Ontario carry most of the seats and those two Provinces are heavily Liberal. NOW they will have to decide if they want to vote for CORRUPTION. I have been a Western Separatist for years because I can't see Ontario turning around. It might tho. Quebec I wrote off years ago.
It has been turning around......if you take out the Liberal stronghold of Toronto and its 40+ seats, which is dominated by elites and brainwashed immigrants who are forced into voting Fiberal.
I don't know the particulars of this detail, but it may well be legitimate and reasonable. "Two Maple Leaf bumper stickers" could cost you ten times that amount on a NASCAR car, for example.
The NDP are more like the European socialist parties. The closest US ally to them is Ralph Nader.
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